500 Pesos Philippines

The Philippine Treasury Certificates of this series were printed in Washington under a colonial fiscal arrangement that required Manila to rely entirely on U.S. federal printing infrastructure — the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced Philippine currency alongside U.S. federal issues as a matter of course during the Commonwealth period. The 500 Peso denomination was never intended for ordinary commerce; it functioned primarily in interbank settlement and large government transactions.

Most of the 1936 high-denomination stock was destroyed during or immediately after the Japanese occupation, either in the wartime bonfires ordered by retreating American and Filipino forces in 1941–42 or in postwar demonetization. Survivors at this denomination are rare for precisely that reason.